AFC Fylde owner seeks clarity from the National League

Matters were brought to a head for the Coasters chairman last Wednesday.

That was when the FA granted permission for the National League to extend its season beyond May, enabling play-offs to take place.

“I was gobsmacked,” said Haythornthwaite.

“None of us knew anything about it, none had been consulted.”

He believed play-offs had been ruled out when the clubs voted in April to end their season immediately.

Clubs were sounded out on play-offs soon after that vote, and Haythornthwaite is convinced that most opposed the idea but have had their views disregarded.

In his latest video interview for the club website, Haythornthwaite said: “I feel things have started to move on behind the scenes and we aren’t being consulted as chairmen and owners of clubs on those issues.

“I decided to write to Michael Tattersall and lay out, number one, my concerns and, number two, some suggestions of how maybe to overcome the issues they are trying to solve or the issues I believe we have as clubs.

“It’s quite hard-hitting but I think we’ve got to that stage. We were told at the outset we’d be given options to vote on how the season is finished and at the moment I feel there’s a bit of skulduggery going on behind the scenes.

“I sent a copy of the letter to all my fellow chairmen in the league, so there’s absolute transparency.

“I think this should be out in the open because I want everyone to understand where I’m coming from.

“I’m disappointed at the total lack of communication. We haven’t had anything as clubs or chairmen from our league for a month – any form of communication.

“As I wrote in my letter to Michael Tattersall, we were asked to vote on ending the season and were assured that if we did, we would then be given options on how we wanted to end the season.

“We were not asked if we wanted to effectively continue playing the season by having play-offs.”

Haythornthwaite feels that if play-offs are deemed necessary for “the integrity of the competition”, they should be used to determine relegation as well as promotion.

He believes that only those clubs who stand to be involved in promotion play-offs wish to see them staged and he accused the league of ignoring the views of all the other clubs.

“That’s like ignoring the Brexit referendum but that’s how democracy has to work,” he said.

Haythornthwaite has requested copies of minutes from National League board meetings to end what he calls “a cloak of secrecy”.

He said: “I wrote to the league in the first week of April to ask for copies.

“That may seem odd but when life-changing decisions are being made for clubs they need to be transparent. Why would you not communicate?

“It’s not a secret club. It matters to everybody – fans, owners – so we need more transparency and dialogue between us.”

Haythornthwaite sees no reason why video conferencing has not been used to bring the chairmen together online.

He added: “I believe in meeting face to face but this technology is fantastic. It’s easy to use, so there’s no excuse for a lack of communication.

“They use it in League One and Two but we haven’t had one of those meetings.

“No-one has even suggested it, so we’re back to a lack of transparency and a total lack of leadership.

“I’m sure Michael is not very happy about me being critical of him but sometimes you have to call a spade a spade and that’s how it is. I’m disappointed.”